Book 7
5
The foregoing are general rules; there are some rules which apply to special missiles, and these I will at once set out. Nothing penetrates so easy into the body as an arrow, and it also becomes very deeply fixed. And this happens both because it is propelled with great force and because it is sharply pointed. Hence it is more often to be extracted through a counter opening than through the wound of entry, and especially so because it is generally furnished with barbs which lacerate more when drawn backwards than if pushed through a counter opening. When a passage out has been laid open, the flesh ought to be stretched apart by an instrument like a Greek letter; next when the point has come into view, if the shaft is still attached, it is to be pushed on until the point can be seized from the counter opening and drawn out: if the shaft has already become detached, and only the arrowhead is within, the point should be seized by the fingers or by forceps, and so drawn out. Nor is the method of extraction different when it is preferred to withdraw the arrow by the wound of entry; the wound having been enlarged, either the shaft, if it is still attached, or, if not, the arrowhead itself, is pulled upon. When the barbs come into view, if they are short and fine, they should be nipped off on the spot by forceps, and the missile drawn out without them. If the barbs are too large and resistant for this, they must be covered by reed pens which have been split, and thus pulled out carefully so as not to tear the flesh. This is what is to be done in the case of arrows.
